Trulia launches $45m national marketing campaign, its first

Buying a home is hard, and Trulia is trying to show how it makes the process easier in its first national campaign.

SAN FRANCISCO: Real-estate website operator Trulia will kick off its first national marketing campaign called Moment of Trulia on Monday.

The $45 million, year-long initiative seeks to engage home buyers and sellers, specifically college-educated women between 25 and 44 years old who are married and ready to buy a home. The effort, which will include TV ads, will take an authentic look at the often "daunting" process and show how Trulia’s mobile app can help, said Micky Onvural, senior director of marketing at the company.

She added that "the Moment of Trulia is really talking to the reality of the process and how our products and services can help you."

To illustrate the concept, Trulia will launch a nationwide, documentary-style TV ad that shows a couple going through the ups and downs of home buying and illustrates how Trulia’s mobile app can provide clarity on many questions.

Trulia decided to focus heavily on mobile because the company discovered through research that the same number of people who attend open-house events search for homes on mobile devices, said Onvural.

In addition to the TV ads, the brand is investing in online media for the commercials, such as Hulu, Pandora, and the Scripps Network, as well as radio ads. Onvural said no print ads are planned at the moment, but the company will evaluate all media options going forward.

Trulia will also post the commercial on its social media channels. The spots were created by Interpublic Group’s FCB and sister agency Initiative.

Trulia’s in-house PR team is handling all communications for the campaign. Last week, it went on a road trip to meet with various advertising and brand-focused media outlets about the effort, said Korina Buhler, product PR manager at the company.

The brand is also sending bloggers who have recently moved, whether they used Trulia or not, postcards that "paint a funny picture of individual moments in the home-buying process," said Onvural. She added that the company hopes the bloggers will write about their own home-buying stories.

Onvural said Trulia re-designed its mobile app about three weeks ago to make it a "more visual and immersive experience" for users, as well as more intuitive and faster. The company’s mobile website and homepage was also revamped in preparation for the campaign launch since the main objective of the initiative is to "drive people to download the app."

In the second and third quarters of this year, Trulia will release two more TV spots to continue to build the campaign’s buzz during house-hunting season, which runs from March through the fall.

Last March, Trulia launched a campaign to find an intern for Los Angeles realtors and the stars of Bravo TV show Million Dollar Listing, Josh and Matt Altman, called Be the Altman Brothers’ Next Intern.